Category: Uncategorized

The cafeteria at work replaced the taco bar with a pasta bar today. I’m not sure if this is a permanent change or if this is just an experiment. Nevertheless, I welcomed the change. The tacos were fine but it seemed like a sparse offering. You got three tacos and no other sides, like greens.

With the pasta bar, you can chose your pasta, your protein, and your sauce. It also comes with a small side salad and a piece of garlic bread. Today, I chose spaghetti, Italian sausage, and tomato sauce. The sauce was a bit bland and they didn’t give me enough but the Italian sausage was quite good. I enjoyed having some salad on my plate.

The fact that the meal didn’t disappoint me was a win in my books. The bar has been placed pretty low at the cafeteria, so average is now good.

Sorry for my absence for the last few days. I spent last Thursday and Friday in Seattle for a super short vacation. I took the train down to Seattle for the first time. It was also my first time using Amtrak via their Amtrak Cascades service.

Using the train is about an hour slower than driving or taking the bus but in terms of comfort, there’s really no beating the train. The seats are more spacious. You can actually get up and walk around during the train ride. The bistro car provides you with food and drink. You can even hang out in the dining car that has tables. The railroad tracks are also next to water about 80% of the time, which makes it a particularly scenic route.

If you’re tech-focused, all the trains have wi-fi and every seat has a power outlet. Amtrak says they don’t support video streaming services but I found that YouTube was available to me. I also saw lots of people doing work on their computers.

As for the border crossing and associated logistics, I found it to be a lot less stressful than the airport. There’s still passport checks and customs but you don’t have to get herded into a security line and get subjected to body scanners. Don’t get me wrong, I love flying but the train is just overall a less stressful experience.

If I had to go to Seattle again, I’d definitely consider the train again.

Have you seen the classic comedy film Zoolander before? Of course you have, that’s where everyone learned to breakdance fight. Anyways, there’s also a scene where some ridiculously good-looking male models go get orange-mocha frapps from Starbucks. Such an offering doesn’t actually exist at Starbucks but YouTube celebrity chef Andrew Rea attempts to make it in the above video.

There’s two Starbucks and a frozen yogurt place within half a block of where I live. On a semi-regular basis, I’ve seen the following scenario. Two young men, smartly dressed, sorta business casual, talking to an individual. They have a set of papers in front of them, sometimes a laptop. The two men are always explaining something to the individual. Most times the individual is much more casually dressed compared to the dudes.

It always seems like it’s the young men who are doing the talking or explaining. It appears to me there are trying to convince the singular person of something. I never get quite close enough to hear what is being said.

It seems shady to me and part of me thinks they are trying to take advantage of the person they are talking to. It’s a double-team and it sorta looks like pyramid scheme setup. Why not meet in a real office? Why are these people choosing to meet in public coffee shops?

Real businesses usually have real offices. The next time I see these types of people, I’m going to linger longer and closer and try to find out what’s going on.

I didn’t realize this but CTV has a library of movies available for streaming, all for free. Some of the selections are quite recent but a large majority of them are in the range of 20 to 25 years old. Just looking at some of the titles takes me back to a time when I was just a young man, full of optimism for the world.

Some of the movies have some sorta expiry date on them. I’m not sure what licensing rules are in place that force such a thing. Anyways, make sure you catch “Iron Man” before it leaves the library.

I just received my property tax notice in the mail today. This is the highest amount I’ve been assessed since I bought my apartment. The jump from last year is about $250, a significant amount. There must be some correlation with my property assessment being the highest on record as well.

This is just another cost of being a homeowner. I hope some day I get to reap the rewards of selling it for a profit.

The United States fascinates me, lately for the wrong reasons, and many times it’s because of the type of food you can get there. You can buy a package of chicken sausage for $1. It actually contains real chicken meat, all for a $1. Amazing.

I napped on my couch for like the first time in like years this evening. I’m not exactly sure why I chose the couch to nap. I think it was because the sun was setting and there was a beautiful sunset to see. I just wanted to witness it as I drifted off to sleep.

It was actually quite pleasant. I propped up two pillows and had some nice back support. I had a light blanket on me and it was a pleasant way to just catch about twenty minutes of rest.

I gotta get more sleep at night.

For almost two weeks, including weekends, I’ve been doing a deep cleaning or organizing of my closets and other parts of my apartment. I’ve been doing that while juggling a busy work schedule where I work late on some nights.

I spent two out of the three days of this long weekend, finishing up the clean. I threw out or recycling a ton of stuff, including old clothes, papers, junk, plastic, and other useless household items. The stuff I did keep went into boxes and plastic tubs.

The sad thing is I still could continue cleaning. I didn’t touch my bathroom and didn’t even go into my kitchen cabinets, which I know contains old dry goods and other items that need to be thrown out or composted.

I could start again next weekend but I think I’ll take some time off to just enjoy a whole weekend without doing any manual labour.

Tomorrow is a public holiday for me, so I’ve turned off the alarm and plan on sleeping until my body makes it so uncomfortable that I have to get up and either pee, drink water, or eat food.